I actively oppose the confirmation of David Crane as a UC Regent. I read Mr. Crane’s Op-Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle in which he argues for the elimination of collective bargaining for public sector employees. I cannot support someone for the powerful post of UC Regent who continues to perpetuate the myth that collective bargaining caused our state economic crisis and has a fundamental misunderstanding of how our state budget operates… Mr. Crane advised, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, reduced the Vehicle License Fee and replaced it with: nothing. As a result, the state general fund lost over $5 to $6 billion in revenues per year for every year Mr. Schwarzenegger was in office. The VLF reduction has resulted in a total loss of over $30 billion to the state, an amount in excess of the current California budgetary shortfall.

Read full article [here].
by Ted Lieu, The California Majority Report.

Posted: March 4th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

It’s time to put to rest David Crane’s argument that public-pension funds, including CalPERS, are not fully disclosing pension liabilities. This is far from the truth and it’s irresponsible of Crane, or anyone else for that matter, to misuse this information to scare the taxpaying public and policymakers. His claims are based on two fatal flaws. First, the Stanford study cited by Crane and commissioned by his former boss — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — uses a much lower assumed investment return rate by assuming that pension funds invest in only low-interest, risk-free bonds, thus artificially producing higher liabilities. It ignores our diversified investment portfolio that has earned us an average annual investment return of 7.9 percent for the last 20 years as well as the investment practices of virtually all public and private pension funds and endowments.

Read full article [here].
by Rob Feckner, The Contra Costa Times.

Posted: March 4th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Unfortunately for the majority of voters who want to maintain public investment in health and education, austerity has become the foolish wisdom of both parties. The Democratic governor of California, Jerry Brown, is cutting at least as deeply as his Republican counterparts in other big states, and with the same absence of developmental vision. Enormous cuts are directed at that cornerstone of upward mobility for working- and middle-class people, our public colleges and universities… Although the Democrat-controlled state Senate budget committee opposed many of Jerry Brown’s proposed cuts in various essential public services, they accepted Brown’s $500 million cut for University of California and California State University, plus $400 million more carved from the community colleges. Why does higher education do so much worse than other segments?

Read full article [here].
by Christopher Newfield, The Huffington Post.

Posted: March 4th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

California is spending about $5.7 billion on its community colleges this year. But no one in state government can say how much community colleges spend on executive compensation because the state doesn’t collect the information… The lack of information about community college compensation is in stark contrast to the state’s other public education systems, which make salary data available to the public with just a few clicks of a mouse. The state Department of Education collects and publicizes the data from California’s K-12 school districts. The California State University and the University of California post executive compensation on their websites. The state controller’s office has begun to collect salary data for local government employees, but the community colleges are not included.

Read full article [here].
by Laurel Rosenhall, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: February 27th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

"Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers." How can this be possible? Simple. The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation- money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future…

Read full article [here].
by Rick Ungar, Forbes.

Posted: February 25th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he won’t negotiate over his plan to strip most collective bargaining rights from nearly every public employee. The Republican said at a news conference at the Capitol on Monday afternoon that he won’t accept any compromises. Union leaders for the state’s teachers, health care workers and other public employees have said they will give the governor the financial concessions he wants — amounting to a pay cut of 8 percent or more — but they will stand firm on what they call union-busting proposals. Walker rejects that idea… Walker has denied political motivations, saying his proposal is about cutting state and local spending for years to come. But in an interview with The Associated Press last week as protests raged inside the Capitol, he acknowledged his plan to allow workers to opt out of paying their dues could cripple unions.

Read full article [here].
by NPR staff and wires, National Public Radio.

Posted: February 21st, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC records show that Desmond-Hellmann’s forested Mount Sutro home was upgraded with $85,800 worth of new surveillance cameras, fencing and new shatter-proof coating on its windows. Her offices, on the other hand, were stripped of their 20-year-old carpeting, cabinets, paint and wall coverings and replaced with new furnishings at a cost of $156,000… According to UCSF spokesperson Amy Pyle, the chancellor’s office remodeling was paid for through campus funds, specifically by the campus tapping into the UC’s short-term investment pool — a fund made up of the interest earned from investing the balance of the UC’s general funds in short-term securities.

Read full article [here].
by Javier Panzar, The Daily Californian.

Posted: February 18th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The delay, backed by the House’s Republican majority and more than four dozen Democratic members as well, would give for-profit colleges and their allies more time to block or overturn the rule, which would cut off federal student aid to programs whose borrowers have high debt-to-income ratios and low loan-repayment rates. The Education Department is expected to issue a final rule in the coming weeks. The amendment would also bar the department from using federal money to enforce new rules that will require for-profit colleges to report more information about student outcomes and to notify the department when they create new programs.

Read full article [here].
by Kelly Field, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: February 18th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Walker, who says the state is in a crisis, is asking legislators to pass his Budget Repair Bill to combat a $137 million shortfall through June 30… tax cuts passed late last year by Wisconsin’s newly elected, Republican-led legislature had helped add more than $200 million to the state’s budget shortfall… Pay raises would be limited to inflation, unless a referendum approves of a larger increases, and collective bargaining could cover only wages. The legislation also requires collective bargaining units to conduct annual votes to maintain certification, a costly procedure, and eliminates the right of unions to have dues deducted from worker paychecks. "Calling this a budget bill is a smokescreen," said Bryan Kennedy, president of AFT-Wisconsin, which represents about 17,000 employees. "This is an attack on all labor organizations."

Read full article [here].
by CNN Wire Staff, CNN.

Posted: February 17th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The University of California system has received a failing report card in a statewide public records transparency audit. Californians Aware, a nonprofit public-access advocacy group, began the audit in November and recently released the results. In its report, the non-profit issued an ‘F’ to the UC, but awarded a ‘B’ grade to the California State University system… According to the audit, six UC campuses, including UCSB, failed to acknowledge Californians Aware’s records request within the legally-mandated 10-day period. However, Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Paul Desruisseaux said the audit was inaccurate and unfairly conducted.

Read full article [here].
by Mackensie Minniear, The Daily Nexus.

Posted: February 17th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.